He’s still got it.
Tony Bennett had the joint in the palm of his hands Friday night at Temple Buell Theatre, where he kicked off a 20-city national tour celebrating his 80th birthday.
While the masterful Frank Sinatra at that age was painfully forgetful, his voice weakened by cigarettes and time, Bennett is still hot. The nearly sold-out crowd was let in on one swingin’ session.
The song list was a tribute to the Great American Songbook mixed with selections from his newest CD, “Duets: An American Classic.”
The AARP sponsored the event, and the audience mostly reflected his fan base.
Still, a surprising number of youngsters were there. Chantel Spann, 15, said she fell in love with Bennett’s brand of music after seeing the film “What Women Want.”
But, she admitted, “I had to explain to my friends who he was.”
Others had memories of seeing Bennett in the ’50s and ’60s. Bennett strode onto the stage to a standing ovation and opened with “Watch What Happens,” then belted out a toe-tapping version of “The Best is Yet to Come.”
Bennett’s high notes aren’t quite as high, the lows a tad off-key and once in awhile he holds the mike away, perhaps to mask any imperfections. But, man, the guy can croon.
“Rosemary Clooney and I were the first American Idols,” he quipped. “Really, I don’t know how I’d do on that show. I’d hope I’d win.”
When he delivered another well-known favorite, “Just in Time,” the audience was indeed ready to make him their Idol. They had all become a finger-snappin’, shoulder-shakin’, head-boppin’ mass.
Then, dancing a sexy samba to an instrumental bridge in “The Shadow of Your Smile,” Bennett had the women sighing and the men wishing they had a fraction of his cool.
Bennett gave a nod to his longtime pianist, Ralph Sharon, who retired to Boulder in 2002 and still plays area clubs, crediting him with the discovery of his signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
“What a beautiful hall this is,” Bennett said of the Buell. “They don’t make ’em like this anymore. … If any of the city fathers are here, don’t turn it into a bank.”
Sixteen-year-old Emi Jacobs-Greene called seeing Bennett a “cultural experience.”
After the second standing ovation – there were five – Jacobs-Greene showed her appreciation with a unique whoop, a Middle Eastern zaghareet.
Then she passed a note that read, “Now this is real music.”
Indeed.
